Industrial vibrators have a wide variety of uses. Vibrators have been used in hoppers, bins and railcars to keep granular materials flowing as they should. Vibrators have also been used in connection with structural and architectural concrete because vibration of wet concrete helps consolidate the concrete for a stronger, more durable structure.
Although pneumatic vibrators came in a variety of embodiments the general type of vibrators to which the present invention is concerned supply air pressure through an inner, substantially cylindrical and solid shaft. Air passes through passageways in the shaft and engages a vane which directs the air substantially in one circumferential direction. The air, now proceeding in a substantially circular direction, engages an inner roller thereby causing the inner roller to rotate. The inner roller rotates in an eccentric orbit due to the presence of the vane which is disposed between the inner roller and the vibrator shaft. The inner roller is disposed within an outer roller and the rotating inner roller engages the outer roller thereby causing the outer roller to rotate eccentrically about the inner roller and shaft. The eccentric rotation of the inner and outer rollers about the shaft and within the vibrator body transmits vibrations radially outward through the outer roller and any structure associated therewith.
The primary drawback to this otherwise efficient design is the general configuration of the vibrator. The vibrator is cylindrical disc shaped in configuration which limits use of the vibrator in multi-component equipment. For example, during the construction of concrete pipe or concrete cylinders, it is highly desirable to apply vibration to the prepacked concrete. Further, it is highly preferable to vibrate the concrete immediately after it is packed with either a longbottom cylinder, a packerhead or a combination of the two. To vibrate the concrete immediately after it is packed, the vibrator should be disposed immediately below the packerhead. However, this configuration is not possible with many current disc shaped vibrator designs because the drive shaft for the packerhead or longbottom must be disposed below the packerhead or longbottom. Therefore, a cylindrical vibrator must be disposed below the drive shaft and drive mechanism of the packerhead or longbottom and, hence, substantially below the longbottom or packerhead. By contrast, an annularly configured vibrator could be disposed immediately below the packerhead because the drive shafting of a counter rotating packerhead assembly could be passed through the center of the vibrator thereby enabling the vibrator to be disposed in close proximity to the packerhead. Further, the drive shafting of a longbottom assembly could also be passed through the vibrator enabling the longbottom assembly to be disposed immediately above or below the vibrator, depending upon the design of the pipe making machinery.
Other applications of an annularly configured vibrator will be apparent to those skilled in the art. An annularly configured vibrator will have applications in the design of multi-component equipment or systems where the vibrator is but one component that must be disposed between or adjacent to other functional components. The primary benefit of such vibrators when used with other functional elements or parts of machinery or equipment is that the driving mechanism for the system can pass through the vibrator thereby providing greater flexibility to the designer of the equipment.